The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Cataract main cause of blindness
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 14 — Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the country, accounting for nearly 50 to 80 per cent blindness cases. This was disclosed by Dr M.R Dogra from the Department of Ophthalmology, PGI, while discussing the causes of visual impairment on the fourth day of the WHO workshop on “Orientation training for disability prevention and rehabilitation’’. However, other causes like trachoma and nutritional deficiency of vitamin A are on the decrease.

Dr Dogra further said that the number of blind people resulting from diabetes mellitus were increasing with the increase in the life expectancy. He also talked about the national blindness control programme and stressed that under this programme, a number of free eye camps were being organised, but emphasised that patients should preferably be operated in the hospital rather than in the open camps.

Prof Sunandan Sood, Head of the Department of Ophthalmology, GMCH-32, talked about the identification, management and certification of disability related to vision. He highlighted the causes of visual impairment in society and various measures to prevent them. He also talked about the aids and appliances needed for the rehabilitation of the visually impaired people wone which had become sophisticated. But due to the high cost and poor availability they were still not popular in the country. Dr Sood stressed on proper training of the blind people was specialised institutions so that they became economically dependent.

Dr S. R. Mittal, Reader from Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi, talked about the development of rehabilitation for the visually impaired people. He pointed out that in blind people like touch, hearing, smell, etc got extraordinarily developed if the individuals were given proper training. Attitude and conviction were important instruments needed for the comprehensive rehabilitation of the blind person, he added. He was of the view that blind people had an equal ability to excel as a sighted person and if they lagged, it was due to lack of proper opportunity rather than disability.

Later, he gave a demonstration of various appliances used for teaching and training of the blind people.

Thalassaemic body function
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 14 — Prizes were distributed at a function organised by the Thalassaemic Children Welfare Association here today.

In his address, Mr S.S Khattar, general-secretary of the association, highlighted the activities of the association and its future plans. The PGI Director, Dr S.K. Sharma, distributed prizes amongst the thalassaemics, who have excelled in academics and have written poems, stories and participated in painting competitions.

He appreciated the work done by the association and said that the PGI would continue to look after the medical problems of the thalassaemics.

Dr Lata Kumar, head of the department of Paediatrics, and Dr J.G. Jolly, former head, Department of Blood Transfusion, were also present at the function, besides the parents of the thalassaemic children.

SPORT

YPS earns reputation for squash
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Sept 14 — If you hear that a youngster has won a medal in any squash meet, you can safely assume that he must be a student of Yadavindra Public School at SAS Nagar. Squash players of the school have earned a reputation in the region. National squash player, Amitoj Inder Singh, is a former student of the school. He trained the YPS under-15 team that won the North Zone Inter Public Schools (ICSE) Meet in Delhi’s Modern School.

The under-13 boys’ team of the school won the second place in the tournament. The team comprised Harmeet, Manpreet, Harinder Pal, Jai Singh Sekhon, Tejinder and Mahir Singh. Amitoj said the team would now take part in the All-India Public Schools Tournament in Mayo College at Ajmer from October 1 to 4.

Manpreet Malhi, who had reached the semi-finals of the under-13 national junior meet at Indore past year, is a Class IX student of the school. He has also received a scholarship from the Sports Authority of India. He said, this year, he would take part in the national meet in Chennai from October 9 to 15. Harneet, a Class X student of the school, is the most senior member of the team. His aim is to be among the top ten squash players of the country. Harinder Pal, the youngest member of the team, studies in Class VI and will play in the junior national meet.

Jai Singh Sekhon, a Class VIII student of the school and a member of the team, said he wanted to become a world-class squash player and admired Peter Nicol of Scotland. He also admires Jansher Khan of Pakistan and Jonathan Power of Canada.

Amitoj said he had received an invitation for the British Open which was to be held in December. He said he had shortlisted Harinder (under-13) and Manpreet (under-17) for the tournament. Amitoj is looking for sponsors for this purpose. He is a level-II coach recognised by the Asian Squash Racquets Federation. He had also collaborated with Australian coach Roger Flynn to train Indian players. He said foreign experts would help youngsters improve their game.

He said the sport was getting a good support from various schools. Two courts had recently been developed in the Sector 26 St John’s High School. Amitoj said the Sector 45 St Stephen’s School was also taking interest in the sport.

The boys who won the North Zone Inter-School Meet said they had the support of their parents and the Principal of the school, Mr H.S. Dhillon. The School will also bear most of their expenses for the All-India Public Schools Meet at Ajmer.

Amitoj said 16 trainees trained in the school. However, there was a dearth of good coaches, he said.

Hockey championship begins
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Sept 14 — The 18th Chandigarh State Hockey Championship began here today at Sector 42 Hockey Stadium with two matches played today. The three-day meet is being organised by the Chandigarh Hockey Association. The meet was inaugurated by Mr K.K. Mehra, Deputy General Manager, State Bank of India.

In the first match of the day, the ITBP team outplayed Shivalik Public School, Sector 41, 6-5 in a tie breaker.

In the second match of the day, the 3BRD team defeated Wanders XI 2-1. Two matches will be played tomorrow, first at 3pm, and second at 4.30 pm.

DAV School win

The CL DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 11, lost in the final match played against the DAV Thermal School in the Mahatma Hansraj Inter-School Cricket Tournament played at Panipat. Earlier CL DAV had beaten Hansraj Public School in semi-final.

Badminton meet

Vikrant Chaudhari of Panchkula bagged the under-19 boys' title at the recently concluded Haryana Junior Badminton Championship held at Faridabad. 17-year-old Vikrant, a trainee at Panjab University Coaching Centre, brought laurels to the District Badminton Association, Panchkula, with this feat. Samritika of Panchkula also cornered glory by remaining runner-up in the under-19 girls’ section at this meet.

Cricket tourney

A fine spell of bowling by Rakesh Jolly helped Kelvinator XI in beating AS XI by 135 runs in the inaugural Devraj Cash Prize Cricket Tournament held under the aegis of the Chandigarh Cricket Association at Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 19.

In another match of the day, Sominder Kaul, who scored 82 runs, enabled the Shine Star Club in beating the Prudential Cricket club by 12 runs.

In third match, a superb bowling of Kapil Kumar who took three wickets of 21 runs helped Punjab Civil Secretariat in defeating the Chandigarh Blues by seven runs.

In the last match of the day, the Devi Cricket Club defeated Ambedkar XI by 147 runs.

Tug-of-war contest at ITBP centre
Tribune News Service

BHANU, Sept 14 — The second national sub-junior tug-of-war championship got under way at the Basic Training Centre of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) at Bhanu here today.

As many as 425 participants and officials from 16 states are taking part in the event which got off to a colourful start with an address by Mr Gautam Kaul, Director-General, ITBP, who is also the President of the Tug-of-War Federation of India (TWFI). Present on the occasion were Mr Hari Shankar Gupta, and Mr Madan Mohan, Vice-President and General Secretary, TWFI, respectively, besides senior officers of the ITBP.

The championship is being conducted by the TWFI and hosted by the Haryana unit of the federation. The teams were weighed according to their categories on the first day of the three-day event. The matches will be played on league as well as knockout basis.

Later the teams were introduced to Mr Kaul.

Mr Kaul was elected President of the federation in 1990 and it was due to his untiring efforts that the federation was recognised by the government.

KV Chandi Mandir lift football trophy
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 14 — The football team of Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1, Chandi Mandir, lifted the trophy on the final day of the Inter K.V. Football Tournament (under-19) of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Chandigarh region. In all 19 matches were played on league-cum-knockout basis by 13 teams at K.V. No. 1, Chandi Mandir, from September 11 to 14.

Consequent to 15 league matches, four knockouts were played, in which K.V. No. 1, Chandi Mandir, battered K.V, RCF, Kapurthala, in the first semi-final by one goal. In the second semi-final, K.V, Sabathu, played against K.V. Kapurthala Cantonment and won 3-2 in a tie break. In the final match K.V. No. 1, Chandi Mandir, beat K.V. Sabathu 1-0.

Principal Ms Bushra Ahuja declared the meet closed after the prize distribution.

Results:

1st — K.V. No.1 Chandi Mandir, 2nd — K.V. Sabathu, 3rd — K.V. Kapurthala Cantonment, 4th — K.V. RCF Husainpura.